There were 170,000 displaced European Jews on ### rolls at the end of February, Arthur J. Altmeyer, executive secretary of the ##tory Commission for the International Refugee Organization, revealed at the commission’s meeting today.
Altmeyer’s breakdown listed 125,600 in the U.S. zone of Germany, 12,000 in the British zone, 2,330 in the French zone, 7,860 in Austria and 22,520 in Italy. In the U.S. zone there are 125,000 living in DP camps and 28,000 outside the centers. Fifty five thousand are men over 18 years of age, 41,000 women over 18 and 11,900 children under the age of six.
Further, there are about 5,000 unaccompanied children registered with UNRRA throughout Europe, Altmeyer said. He stressed that the figures are incomplete because many children are constantly on the move, secretly leaving for unknown destinations.
Altmeyer also reported that since the last meeting of the commission in February, UNRRA has provided sufficient stocks to carry over the refugee population in Italy until June 30, its termination date. UNRRA has also consolidated all its camps into nine large centers in northern or southern Italy. He also recommended to the commission that it establish an international or European tracing bureau to replace the present tracing office in Germany.
The commission session has split into several sub-committees to study the DP problem and to make recommendations for caring for the refugees. The first sub-committee, consisting of the chiefs of all delegations, is to recommend to the commission the best ways of assuring “uninterrupted carrying out of all the necessary functions and activities dealt with by the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees and by UNRRA” and the orderly transfer of these functions and activities to the IRO.
The second sub-committee, headed by P.T. Holson of Canada, is to assess the total numbers and the situation of displaced persons and refugees. It is expected that the committee’s country-by-country analysis will disclose approximately one million persons in need of care. The figures which are reached will serve as the basis for the IRO’s budget.
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